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Supermarket Chain Schnuck Markets Suffers Major Security Breach

St. Louis-situated supermarket chain Schnuck Markets Inc. has disclosed that the information of clients debit and credit cards have been infected due to the cyberattack, as reported by softpedia.com dated April 16, 2013.

As per a statement released by Schnuck, in between the December of 2012 and March 29, 2013, cyber thugs embezzled details of an estimated 2.4 million ATM and credit cards. Of the 100 Schnuck stores, 79 have been hit by the unscrupulous attack.

The cyber crooks it seems have achieved access to card numbers and the dates till which the cards hold their validity. The supermarket chain claims that the names of the cardholders, their addresses and other details associated with them have not been hijacked.

No information has been released publicly explaining as to how the notorious crooks have managed to attack the company's networks, however, the company has confirmed that the cyber crocks have employed malware to embezzle the data.

Schnucks has worked in tandem with its payment processing firm to confirm that banks are able to prevent false transactions. Besides this, the Federal Bureau of investigation and the Secret Service have initiated an inquiry to trace the culprits. The company had hired Mandiant, a well-known security firm to examine further amid news of many frauds associated with the breach.

Scott Schnuck, Chairman and CEO of Schnucks Markets Inc said sorry to all those affected by the attack in an official apology, reported by schnuck.com dated April 15, 2013.

He claimed: "Technology, over the years, has put efforts in delivering superior consumer service, but it also bears menaces that we have worked to operate via complains audits, encrypted technology and many other security measures".

Commenting on the same incident, an Analyst with Gartner Research Avivah Litan, said: "Schnucks' incident highlights the increasing complexity of such cyberattacks and the difficulty companies bear in confronting them", as published by computerworld.com on April 15, 2013.

More and more, cybercriminals have been using methods like data encryption and hiding embezzled data inside genuine files to escape detection. "They cover their malicious software or conceal it within apparently innocent files making it hard to detect", she elaborated.

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